Athletics

2013-14 Athletics year in review

Jul 24, 2014

Website traffic
– CUW always want information on their Falcon
student-athletes and this year saw a 5.14 percent increase in
website traffic during the 2013-14 athletic year. In all,
13,107,731 page hits were recorded for CUWFalcons.com between
August 30 and May 16. The most viewed month was November with
2,006,679 page hits being registered.

Most viewed day
– January 24, 2014 had the most page hits during the
2013-14 athletic year, as 154,058 page hits were accumulated. On
that day, nearly all of the page hits were to see watch the 63rd
Annual Concordia Invitational Tournament. CUW's Men's Hockey and
Women's Hockey programs also competed that day.

What just happened
– Falcon fans want to know what happened and
subsequently the 9 p.m. hour was the time when the most people
visited CUWFalcons.com. In total, 853,628 page hits were accounted
for during the 9 p.m., which is generally the hour after the
completion of most night contests.

It gets busy around here
– CUW teams competed in 440 events during the
2013-14 athletics season. Those events took place from August 30,
2013 through May 16, 2014. Men's Golf, Women's Golf and Women's
Soccer opened up the athletics calendar on the 30th of August,
while Women's Golf also concluded the schedule at the NCAA Division
III Championships in May. The 440 events (all games, matches and
meets) was six more than during the 2012-13 season.

Playing at home
– Of the 440 events during the 2013-14 athletics
season, 172 were played at home. That number is seven more than in
2012-13 when the Falcons competed in 165 home events.

Overall record
– CUW finished the 2013-14 season with a 194-165-9
record in the 15 sports that measure W-L records in some capacity.
The Falcons won nine more games and matches than in 2012-13 and 10
of the 15 sports posted a record above .500.

Conference record
– The Falcons were once again excellent in
conference play, posting a 125-67-6 record in the previously
mentioned 15 sports. CUW takes part in the NACC, MLC, MWLC, NCHA
and the NWA conferences. Football posted a perfect 6-0 record this
past season, while 12 of the 15 teams finished about .500.

Home field –
CUW also played well on its home ice, courts and fields during the
2013-14 season, posting a 97-58-6 record. No programs took
advantage of home games better than Men's and Women's Lacrosse as
the two combined to go 17-4 at Fitting Field during the spring. Of
the 15 sports we used to measure this statistic, 11 finished about
.500 in home competition during the past season.

Number of student-athletes
- CUW had 494 student-athletes compete in 2013-14,
according to final rosters from each sport at the end of their
respective seasons. All-in-all the Falcons had 544 student-athletes
on those lists but several played multiple sports, knocking the
number down to 494.

Another Wrestling
All-American - The Falcons again had an All-American in
2013-14 as sophomore wrestler Sean Ambrocio became the second CUW
grappler in the past two seasons to earn All-American honors.
Ambrocio finished eighth in the 125-pound weight bracket at the
NCAA Division III Championships.

All-Region honorees
- The Falcons had six players earn All-Region honors
during the 2013-14 season. Three of those athletes earned the honor
during the fall season, including senior Jacob Pope of the Men's
Soccer program who earned First Team All-Region honors. In addition
to Pope, sophomore Carley Pfannerstill earned Third Team honors in
Women's Soccer, while junior Nick Smith was a Third Team offensive
guard in Football. Katie Luethe earned Second Team All-Region for
her strong play in the winter, leading the Women's Basketball team
to a 22-5 record. In the spring, junior Sammy Reiter was named
Second Team All-Region in Women's Lacrosse, while senior Mariah
Giesseman was named to the Third Team in Softball.

Players of the Year
- As was highlighted in the CUWFalcons.com No. 1 Story of
the Year, the Falcons had seven players earn Conference Player of
the Year honors during the 2013-14 season. Those players were
Luethe (Women's Basketball), Reiter (Women's Lacrosse), Pope (Men's
Soccer), Austin Damaschke (Football), Ambrocio (Wrestling), Nina
Puch (Women's Golf) and Martin Hinze (Men's Indoor Track &
Field).

All-Conference accolades
- The Falcons had an impressive 78 student-athletes earn
All-Conference recognition in their respective sports during the
2013-14 athletics season. Any athlete who was named to a
conference's first, second, honorable mention, or All-Freshman team
was included in the 78 student-athletes. The 78 athletes is up from
66 a season ago. Football had 17 players selected for
All-Conference accolades, while Men's Lacrosse had nine
student-athletes earn the honors.

Advancing to the national
stage – Advancing to the national stage isn't easy,
but a pair of Falcon programs played for a NCAA Division III
Championship, in their respective sport, after winning a Northern
Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament trophy. The Football
team cruised to a perfect 6-0 record against conference foes and
during those events outscored the opposition by a 283-182 margin
(16.8 per game). CUW fell at UW-Platteville 54-20 in the first
round of the NCAA Division III Championship. The Women's Golf
program won its second-straight league title with an 18-stroke
advantage. They shot three of the four lowest rounds at the NACC
Tournament. CUW faced stiff competition at Mission Inn Resort and
played a pair of rounds before failing to make the cut.

National rankings
– Only one student-athlete can be crowed a NCAA
Division III statistical champion per statistics and Hayley Peppers
inscribed her name on a plaque forever, as she led the country with
a 7.35 ground balls per game average. The junior midfielder set the
Women's Lacrosse game record on five occasions, owns the single
season record and the current career leader in ground balls. In
all, four student-athletes ranked in the top-10 in respective
statistical categories, while the Women's Basketball and Women's
Lacrosse team were among the best in the nation. Below is a list of
student-athletes and teams who achieved a top-10 ranking nationally
in a statistical category:

Twitter - The CUW
Athletic Communications Department sent out 2,554 tweets between
August 30 and May 16. They tried to keep Falcons fans updated on
the latest news by tweeting in-game scores, interesting facts or
just interacting with student-athletes. The CUWFalcons twitter
handle also became the most followed of all NACC schools and now
has 1,388 followers.

Those behind the scenes
– The Athletic Communications Department continued
to improve the quality and quantity of information (game recaps,
news, box scores, social media, photographs, live video, etc.)
during the 2013-14 athletic year. With two full-time staff members,
Steven Schauer and Brian Schipferling, and a group of over 20
student workers helped make everything behind the scenes run
smoothly and efficiently. The top priority for the 2014-15 athletic
year is to provide more content for CUWFalcons.com social media
platforms.

Athletic Communications
working overtime – Those who work in the Athletic
Communications Departments had to work a little extra during the
2013-14 athletic year, as they were challenged with the task of
hosting six Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference Championships,
the 63rd Annual Concordia Invitational Tournament, the 21st Annual
CUW Wrestling Open and the 20-plus team cross country Falcon
Invitational. In addition, CUW hosted six NACC Championship events
during the 2013-14 athletic year.